EU denies giving money to Palestinian security – but emphasizes it gives money to make Jerusalem “Palestinian”

In the wake of the heavy handed Palestinian security forces attacking protesters over the past three days, people criticized the EU for funding the Palestinian police.

In response, the European Union and the Palestinians explained exactly what they fund for Palestinians:

The EU does not provide any financial or technical assistance to the Palestinian Security Forces other than technical assistance to the Palestinian Civil Police. Our funding pays salaries for nurses, doctors and teachers, and contributes to the financial support to the poorest Palestinian families in the West Bank and Gaza. We also finance major infrastructure projects, support civil society and the business sector, notably micro and small enterprises, implement projects to preserve the Palestinian identity of Area C and East Jerusalem, and remain the major partner of UNRWA. The EU has the most robust monitoring mechanism in place to ensure that every Euro is actually spent as intended.

We already knew this, but here the EU says it explicitly: they regard all of east Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria to be Palestinian territory – not something to be negotiated between the parties. And they will spend a large amount of EU money to oppose Israel’s claims on those areas.

And it does this even though those areas were never “Palestinian.”

It isn’t exactly being an honest broker.

In 2017, the EU budgeted 45 million euros to support “East Jerusalem” over the following three years. As far as I can tell, none of it went to pay the rents of Arabs in Sheikh Jarrah which could stop their eviction.